AN ENTREPRENEUR accused of a bomb-hoax at a chemical factory has told of a failed $600,000 business deal.

Jean Claude Rubagire, 36, is alleged to have strapped a fake bomb to his body and taken three employees hostage at Alfred H Knight on Prescot Road, St Helens, causing a major alert.

Oxford-educated Rubagire, of no fixed address, alleged the metal analyst firm had been at the centre of a collapsed mineral deal, which led to him losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rubagire described how he had completed the deal, involving 20tonnes of tantalite, a mobile phone component, which Alfred H Knight had analysed as 45% pure. But, despite rigorous security, when the product arrived at its buyer he said it was “worthless, zero”.

Rubagire also described the pain of surviving the genocide in Rwanda in which his parents and six siblings were killed. He described coming to the UK as a “dream”. He denies five charges. (Proceeding)